New features empower companies to extend customer relationships into the social web and more clearly determine social media ROI.

Fredericton, NB (June 24, 2009) – The social web is touching more and more business processes inside the enterprise. Marketing, customer support, sales, and community professionals increasingly need to understand how the conversations happening in social media impact and drive their customer relationships.

Radian6 helps companies listen to what people are saying about them online and engage in those conversations across the social web. From blogs and comments to multimedia, boards and forums and communities like Twitter, Radian6 gathers the discussions happening online and gives businesses the ability to analyze, manage, track, and report on their social media monitoring and engagement efforts.

Radian6 has now extended its platform to equip team members with deep social media listening and measurement capabilities within the tools they already use. With features developed on their platform API and Social Metrics Framework for integrating third-party data, Radian6 now supports the integration of social customer relationship management (CRM), web analytics, and other enterprise systems.

Social CRM
Customer expectations are shifting, and companies must address the changing needs of the new social customer.  With the proliferation of social networks and other online communities, customers are now more accessible than ever before, and companies are able to connect and provide a remarkable customer experience by listening to their customers and reaching out to them online.

Based on tremendous market demand from its existing and prospective enterprise customers, Radian6 has developed, and is today announcing the availability of the Radian6 and Salesforce.com Social CRM integration.

These new Social CRM integrated capabilities empower your teams across the enterprise, with the following:

•    Sales teams are now equipped with significantly more relevant information about their customers through an integrated view of their customers’ online conversations combined with existing CRM activity history

•    Marketing teams can now meet prospects at their point of need, connecting much earlier in the buying process with real-time listening of online conversations, and reduce the overall cost of qualified leads

•    Customer service teams are now empowered to provide remarkable service by proactively responding to customers on their terms, equipped with an integrated view of their entire case and conversation history.

•    Community and social media teams are provided with context for their outreach and engagement efforts

Radian6 has worked with a variety of its valued enterprise customers, including Comcast, to help define its Social CRM strategy and product capabilities.

“Comcast has always viewed social media as an important communications channel for customers, similar to phone or email,” explains Frank Eliason, Comcast’s Director of Digital Care. “We’re excited to see tools that share this vision of customer service, and are looking forward to tapping Radian6′s integrated social CRM capabilities.”

Web Analytics Integration
Radian6 now brings together web and social media analytics, providing the richest combination of social and online metrics available to determine and articulate social media ROI.

Marketing, community, and social media teams can now map their word-of-mouth or social media initiatives directly to click-throughs and purchases on the website, and view their web activity and performance through the lens of social media. By integrating with Webtrends, Radian6 will enable users to leverage conversational web analytics and:

•    Calculate the ROI of content marketing and outreach efforts by connecting associated social media conversations to website traffic, downloads, conversions or sales

•    Measure the direct benefits of customer advocacy and quantify the value of engaging customers and influencers online

•    Compare which types of social media and communities are most effective in generating positive word-of-mouth, resulting in the desired actions on your website

“The announcement of today’s integration is an ideal example of how our partners are leveraging the Webtrends Open Exchange to benefit customers,” said Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, vice president, marketing, Webtrends. “The social web requires marketers to integrate web analytics with social media monitoring in order to extract ROI from all their online initiatives. The ability to drill down into and analyze social data is here and easy to use.”

“The Radian6 platform can now help businesses understand, on a global level, what kind of impact and resonance their social media content has online, how it’s driving website traffic and sales, and how their customer and prospect base behaves and grows as a result of social media,” says Marcel Lebrun, CEO of Radian6. “Connecting the dots between web analytics, CRM, and social media measurement brings significant clarity and insight to an enterprise’s social media ROI equation.”

For more information about Radian6′s new capabilities and integrations or to request a demo, visit the Radian6 website at http://www.radian6.com.

About Radian6 Technologies

Radian6 provides the social media monitoring platform for marketing, communications and customer support professionals. The company’s flexible dashboard enables monitoring all forms of social media with results appearing in real-time, as discovered. Analysis widgets, streamlined reporting, and integrated workflow capabilities give users the ability to uncover influencers, track and measure engagement and determine which conversations are having an impact online. Integrated social media, CRM, and web analytics also help companies define their social media ROI. For more information, please visit http://www.radian6.com.

If you’ll be in Boston for Enterprise 2.0, or if you’ll be local on the 24th for any reason, you aren’t going to want to miss our party, The Rockstars of Social CRM, hosted by Chris Brogan. The event will be held at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront on Wednesday, June 24th from 8PM to 11PM. RSVP on the Eventbrite page to reserve your spot!

But never fear if you can’t make it live – we’re live streaming the whole event as part of our new Twebinar format. Both events are free, and both are going to be an absolute blast. Sign up for the Twebinar on the Eventbrite page and we’ll email you simple login instructions next week.

Why Social CRM? You’ll hear more from us about that this week. But in short, Social CRM is the new dynamic in building long-term, fruitful relationships for your company. It’s a new way of approaching and cultivating customer relationships that’s focused on people instead of tools, collaboration instead of control, and valuable experiences instead of transactions.

During our fun and fast-paced panel discussion with some of the leading minds in this field, we’ll discuss how these new expectations in customer relationships are changing the game, and what role we as social communicators play in the evolution.
Join:

• Chris Brogan, President, New Marketing Labs and author of ChrisBrogan.com
• Marcel Lebrun, CEO, Radian6
• Frank Eliason, Director of Digital Care, Comcast
• Paul Greenberg, Author of CRM at the Speed of Light, President of The 56 Group, LLC
• Brent Leary, Co-author of Barack 2.0 and Co-founder of CRM Essentials
• Michael Thomas, National President, CRM Association

And throughout the event, we’ll have drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and fun interviews with Chris Brogan live on the web. And after the brief discussion and some exciting announcements from Radian6, jam out and be your OWN rockstar with Rock Band 2 live on the big screen. (We’ll even take your song requests in advance. Just email us here and we’ll do our best to get your song so you can wow the crowd.)
We can’t wait to see you there, either live in Boston, or live on the web. Questions? Just let us know. See you in Boston!

It’s a pretty common question: “What, exactly, am I listening to if no one’s talking about me or my brand?”

Companies that are small, new, or just not as plugged in to the online environment can sometimes feel as though they’ve got nothing to gain by monitoring social media because the mentions of their brand are few and far between.

But the “listening” step of social media is important beyond that. In fact, it illustrates a fundamental principle of a successful social media foundation: thinking and participating around and above your brand.

We’ve Got Company

Unless you’re in a super-niche or groundbreaking industry, you’ve got competition. You’re likely not the only game in town, so if someone isn’t talking about you, they may very well be talking about your competitors, and you can learn a lot about what they’re saying.

From insights about what customers love or don’t love about a competitors offering to who’s engaged in the community on behalf of the competitive brand, conversations can tell you a ton. And understanding your Share of Conversation within the larger industry you represent – especially as compared to those competitors – is an important insight.

One thing to note: trolling for your competitor’s customers and fans in social media is a big no-no. It’s one thing to connect with them and build a genuine relationship (good). It’s another thing entirely to be chasing down your competitors customers or engaged prospects and using these channels as an opportunity to poorly butt in and pitch your stuff (bad). Tread lightly.

Finding The Tribes

A key to understanding where to spend your resources in social media is the basic knowledge of where your potential customers are gathering online. Are they bloggers, or do they favor Twitter to have their conversations? Are they using forums to hold discussions? Or maybe they’re not using these sites much at all?

You can monitor for discussions that swirl around your industry at large instead of about specific brands to understand how those audiences are using (or not using) social sites. For example, if I’m a lawn care company, I’m going to be searching for discussions on lawn maintenance, landscaping, and the weekend warriors out cutting the lawn or sharing lawn care tips among their friends. Where they’re talking is where I want to be participating. Instead of a shotgun plan, I’ve now got a focused idea about where my social media outreach should be aimed.

Problem, Meet Solution

Problems, needs, and wish lists from your potential customers or your competitor’s customers are being tossed out to the social web all the time. From product reviews to casual statements about what’s not working right, customers are giving you loads of intelligence about what problems they need you to solve.

Think bigger than your brand, and tune in to conversations that are about the kinds of issues and challenges that your product or service is aimed at solving. If you’re a virtual assistant, maybe you’re listening to people who are drowning in email and learning how to help them to refine your service offerings. If you’re an accountant, you might be putting together a list of the most commonly asked questions from people setting up a small business and doing a podcast about it.

We call this “listening at the point of need” and it’s about understanding how your business solves problems for people, and then connecting with them in a meaningful, helpful way when they need you most. It’s not about a sales pitch. It’s about creating a solution for someone that they’re asking for. And by listening to the feedback from people who aren’t yet familiar with your brand but know your industry, you can learn how to create better and more relevant offerings that address the pain points these folks have and talk about most.

It’s Bigger Than Your Brand Name

Simply put, conversations in social media aren’t just about finding mentions of your brand. It’s about finding relevant conversations from within the communities you serve and understanding how those impact your business and its growth potential. Listening is a holistic activity with great potential to bring you intelligence, insight, and focus for your social media efforts.

What else would you be paying attention to, and how can you be listening above, around, and nearby you brand to improve your business?